Tue Feb 07 2012
One of my favorite pictures in the whole wide world is that of my two older children, Charlotte and Ben, on the first day of school several years ago. She was entering the 9th grade and the glam and glitz of high school. He was getting ready to put the wraps on a less-than-illustrious elementary school career by entering the sixth grade. Never before had the camera captured so effectively the true dispositions of both son and daughter in the same frame. Just as the shutter clicked, Ben reached a greasy little paw out as if he were about to take hold of his sister's hand. In reaction, Charlotte recoiled, jerking her arm away with a look that said more clearly than words, "If he touches me I'm going to throw up!" It's a family classic, a real once in a lifetime shot!
It's a great tradition, and one enjoyed by parents -- if not so much their children -- all over the country this annual posing of the pupils. To me, it's even more emblematic of the march of time than the "official" school pictures that now seem to arrive every couple of months. If you want to see what is really going on in the life of a kid, catch him or her on the first day of school, when they've just recently been ripped from the backyard pool, or the skatepark, or the ball diamond. They've still got that joy, that satisfied, "I've been busy all summer being ME" look. Nine weeks into it, when they've had time to become affected by the fashion monoculture of their teen or pre-teen social circle, they all start to look alike to me. It's a good thing my little urchins have dimples to distinguish them from the other Target models or I'd probably end up with the wrong kid in the car sooner or later! Clearly, I digress.
I had never missed out on that hallowed "first day of school" shot of my kids. No matter where I was in life or where the work-a-day world may have preferred I be, I always found a way to stand facing our small troupe of nestlings as they stood posed in front of the black-eyed Susans at the side of the house, squinting into the morning sun just long enough for me to say "Cheese."
Sadly, this week, after several years of lucking-out with regard to scheduling, the world of higher education (where I work) arrived at a cataclysmic convergence with the world of lower education, for lack of a better term, (where I live) and I had to be on campus to greet my students at the very same moment my kids were marching off toward their own respective schools. Yes, mother was there to take the picture and all, but based on a long and storied history of unexplainable shakes, blurs, and anomalous camera malfunctions, I have good reason to worry that this year's shot -- which includes one child headed to middle school, one to high school, and another off to college -- may have been compromised.
The truth awaits me as soon as I get up the courage to look at the camera.
The saving grace, however, may be that what Kristin lacks in the simple ability to snap a photograph she more than makes up for when it comes to capturing the whole moment in a wash of ink and watercolor. Now that I think about it a picture like that might be even better than a whole box of photographs!
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